Uses of the web in companies

Being online does not necessarily imply generating a.com business, or being predestined to be a millionaire. Installing a commercial site on the web does not always mean a new business.

Introduction

The global, interconnected world requires insertion into the network to allow interested parties to have all the information they need. Those stakeholders are customers, suppliers, channels and, why not, competitors.

Interaction, information and cooperation are the key terms that bring us life on the web, both exclusively used within the company and the one that connects the company with the outside world.

The Web allows a variety of actions to be carried out on the Internet, such as browsing, buying, observing (browsing), playing, betting, negotiating, obtaining information, closing transactions, obtaining information on the status of orders, defining shipping procedures. In return, it also means obtaining information about visitors and customers at the same time, organizing that information in databases, and using it for promotions, surveys, marketing campaigns, which eventually violates individual privacy.

The company on the Internet will need to cover two roles, one inside and one outside the company. The first concerns the backroom: internal management of the company. The second role is related to the customer –the counter tasks- to help the visitor in their navigation, present promotional and marketing elements, capture information, receive online orders, attend to customer requirements and generate a friendly atmosphere that enables the visit reiterated: this is the realm of web design.

One key is to adequately personalize the environment, so that the visitor perceives a kind of virtual salesperson who attends them personally, discusses their needs and preferences, provides information, and suggests products.

Uses of the Web in companies

Since the Association for Commercial Exchange on the Internet was created in 1991, the commercial use of the Internet began and since then companies have used the Internet in various applications.

Below is a list of applications or activities that the company can use to take advantage of the Web:

E-mail: it is one of the most important applications for most companies Online product demonstration: can include catalogs and sample texts Real-time customer service: customers can place orders by entering information with the keyboard about the payment and the address to which the item they purchased should be sent. Order supplies and track orders placed Multimedia interactions: you can see rooms of a hotel chain on video Make ticket and tour reservations electronically: get information on rates and make reservations online Sale of tickets and season tickets Promote activities and products: currently the Web sites that earn the most money are those that sell advertising space directly on their sites (through banners).Ad prices on the Web cost between US $ 2 and US $ 10 per thousand “readers”. One problem with advertising banners is that their effectiveness is relatively low, since less than 5% of users press the banner to go to the advertiser's site. Publication of the annual report, financial statements, of the company's quarterly results, of the internal magazine, etc. Inform yourself about the competition: by browsing the institutional pages of your competitors Make an electronic brochure: making information about the company available 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world Conduct surveys: to Evaluate customer satisfaction Ease of conquering new markets Product launch, price reduction, executive changes, etc.Replace the sending of printed documentation with electronic documentation, available online: using files in text format, it is excellent to use, for example, PDF files (Acrobat Reader) since they are less “heavy” when downloading, providing greater speed to this action.Keep your target markets informed at the moment: being able to download free software, obtain technical support and receive information on training.special discount invitations for your customers and people who request information through the network: to exhibitions, conferences, courses, etc. after a certain number of visits to the page for its registered customers. Announce news to the company and the general public: through newsletters to subscribers via email or directly by consulting the company's Home Page.Carry out a public relations campaign Link all branches to share and update information instantly Establish direct contact with the press Make a mailing list of people interested in regularly receiving more information Search for employees and receive job proposals: Through pages derived from the main or institutional page, companies can carry out the process of recruiting resumes of potential employees who spontaneously submit them to become part of the company's database.Buying products online: at the beginning your adoption was slow. The lack of commerce infrastructure, fears about the security of online financial transactions, and poor execution made early online sales efforts very difficult.However, as software and procedures have been refined to eliminate these problems, use of the Web has grown rapidly to support home shopping, pay-per-view shows, and other business activities.

The great potential of the Web is that by electronically linking buyers with sellers, companies are in a position to establish an ongoing relationship with their customers. Businesses can use the Web as a marketing, sales, and customer support tool. The Web can be a low-cost alternative to fax, express mail, and other communication channels. It has the potential to eliminate paperwork and lower business transaction costs.

Intranets and Extranets

An intranet is an internal corporate network created using standards and products from the Internet and the World Wide Web, and which allows employees of an organization to access information about the corporation.

These private networks use the infrastructure of the Internet and the WWW but are isolated from the public Internet by a device known as a firewall. Employees can leave the Internet, but unauthorized users cannot access it. A big advantage is that many people are already familiar with the Internet and the Web, requiring little training to make effective use of your corporation's intranet.

An intranet is a low-cost but high-capacity alternative to other forms of internal communications.

It has the ability to significantly reduce the need for paper.

Any employee can view the same electronic information as they operate on any type of computer.

Any type of document can be cheaply converted to electronic form on the Web and constantly updated.

It provides employees with an easy and intuitive method to access information that was previously difficult to access. (Example: ideal for providing information to a sales force on the move who needs to have access to information that changes at any time).

It enables all of the organization's computers, software and databases, spread throughout the corporation, to be placed in a single system that enables employees to find information wherever they are.

Applications:

Employees can use a web server to reallocate investments in their plans Link the design centers of a corporation on different continents Schedule meetings online for a given department of the company Access many databases by clicking on the hyper-leagues More sophisticated intranets that allow employees to fill out electronic forms, ask questions of corporate databases and hold virtual conferences on private websites Interactive transaction-based applications: employees can ask questions of corporate databases to verify the status of the request for a customer, a shipment of raw materials, or a manufacturing run of a finished product. Workgroup computing support: A method of supporting people who work together in teams.It has the ability to store and share information in any form - text, video, sound, graphics, handwritten memos, or hand-drawn figures. Allows you to organize and retrieve data. Allows the employee to check others' schedules and schedule meetings. Support for real-time meetings with people linked by networks instead of having to be present in one place.

Some companies offer limited access to their network to select customers and providers. These networks are known as extranets, which connect people who are outside the company.

An extranet is a web-based network that links selected resources from a company's intranet to its customers, suppliers, or other business partners.

A few companies allow their selected customers and suppliers to actually feed data into the corporation's transaction processing systems. Typically, these users are provided with a form on the intranet to place an order or request information about their situation.

Legalization and privacy are essential on an extranet and are of no importance to a public Web site.

To have secure applications for intranet and extranet access, it is generally required to use a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN is a secure connection between two points over the Internet. VPNs transfer information by encapsulating traffic in IP packets and sending them over the Internet, a practice known as tunneling.

By using a VPN the user sends data from their personal computer to the company's firewall, which also converts the data to an encrypted form that cannot be easily read if intercepted.

The encrypted data is then sent over an access line to the company's service provider. From here, the data is transmitted through tunnels through the Internet to the recipient's Internet service provider and then through an access line to the receiving company's firewall where it is decoded and sent to the recipient's personal computer.

You can send email whenever you want, file transfers, including exchanging photos to print advertisements while working with the same client, for example.

Privacy & Security

Privacy relates to the correct or incorrect collection and use of data. Data about an individual may be collected, stored and used without their knowledge or authorization.

The potential for invasion of privacy on the Internet is considerable. The people who can undertake such an invasion range from rogue hackers to marketing companies, not to mention the superiors at work. Personal and professional information about each of us may be made available on the Internet without our knowledge or authorization. Email is one of the problem areas. When you visit a website on the Internet, information about you and your computer may be captured. If this information is combined with other information, companies may know what you read, what products you buy, and what your interests are.

Companies that use Web sites should have a section on their policies in this regard, for the peace of mind of their navigators, and that is very clear as to the information that is collected, and how it will proceed with it. The real problem is knowing what a site wants to record the information for.

Cryptography is the process of converting a message into a secret code and then changing the encrypted message back to normal text. The original conversion is called encoding. The decoded message is known as plain text (plaintext). The encrypted message is called encrypted text.

Cryptography requires additional hardware and software, but it is becoming increasingly necessary to support electronic commerce, copyright administration, and electronic service delivery. Without cryptography, people would not trust that electronic financial transactions, secret or private data, and valuable intellectual property will remain private across networks.

A cryptosystem is a software package that uses an algorithm, or mathematical formula, plus a key, and converts each character in normal text to other encoded characters, thereby creating encoded text. Only someone with the correct key should be able to decipher the encrypted text. Encryption renders information useless for unauthorized system users (hackers) and thieves.

Organizations encode the words and videos of their video conference sessions. People encrypt their email. Researchers use encryption to hide information about new discoveries.

Encryption can also be used to verify the sender of a message and learn if the message was interfered with during its route. Digital signature is a technique used to meet those critical needs for online financial transaction processing. These have a complicated technique that combines the public method of encryption with keys with a "hashing" algorithm that avoids the reconstruction of the original message.

Encryption can also prevent electronic fraud by authenticating the identities of transmitters using digital signatures.

Digital Certifications

The most used way of guaranteeing security on the Internet is through digital certificates.

Digital certifications are based on asymmetric cryptography technology, where a two-key method is developed - a public one is freely distributed and serves to verify the subscriber's digital signature and a private one, which can be used for digital signatures and personalized documents. open source - related to each other: what one encrypts, the other decodes. The function of the certifying authorities is to validate that the public key belongs to who it claims to be. The backbone of these systems is the public key infrastructure (PKI), which provides security for transactions over the Internet or other networks built on public infrastructures -extranets or intranets, for example- through the use of digital certificates, and resorting to certification authorities.

The certificate has multiple applications: from preserving the content of an email, to electronic payment operations and homebanking.

The PKI has three basic priorities:

Confidentiality of the data. Non-repudiation of origin: it ensures that the transactions carried out cannot be subsequently denied. Authentication of the transactions.

Digital certificates can work in different ways:

Through a server certificate installed on an e-commerce site. The consumer who accesses that site can be sure that he is communicating with the site he wanted and, moreover, all the information exchanged with that site will be encrypted so that no third party interferes; With a certificate installed on a payment gateway (form of payment based on a combination of programs and hardware that communicates two different types of networks) of a credit card, the merchant ensures that the transaction that he is making to the card is actually received; A digital certificate allows the consumer prove his identity to the site with which he wants to carry out transactions, regardless of payment.

Two certifying companies operate in Argentina: Certisur, the main affiliate of VeriSign and also operates Gire, created by a group of banks to outsource the collection of telephone bills.

Certisur (VeriSign) works on the implementation of Secure electronic transactions (SET) "secure electronic transactions", based on digital certificates. They require the secure socket layer (SSL) as a protocol because that guarantees confidentiality.

Firewalls

Internet security can be achieved with the help of a firewall, which is a filter that restricts the flow of data between the company's internal network (intranet) and the Internet. It is based on the idea of establishing protection for all computers on the network rather than individual protections for each computer.

It is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to networks. It is the most used method, more than 70% of the organizations that use the Internet have these systems.

The firewall can be anything from a group of filtering rules established in the router between a company and the Internet, to a complex application gateway consisting of one or more computers with special configurations that control access. The idea is to allow some services to pass through, but deny entry to others.

It is used to allow access only to specific hosts and networks or to prevent access by certain hosts. Different levels of access can be provided to different hosts; a preferred host may have full access, while a secondary host may only have access to certain parts of the host's directory structure.

The firewall provides both security gate applications and the ability to use consistent encryption.

As already stated, the firewall offers varying degrees of security, depending on the type.

Firewall types

Packet filtering firewall. One type of device that is typically included in a network is a router, which guides the flow of traffic. It can act as a firewall if it is placed between an intranet and the Internet. It is equipped with data tables that reflect the filter policy. In each transmission, the router consults the tables, and only allows the passage of certain types of messages or of messages from certain sites. Limitation: It is a single point of security Firewall at the circuit level. A computer that is installed between the Internet and the internal network, which allows a higher level of validation logic to be integrated into the filtering process. The computer executes the code necessary for all transactions. It remains a single point of security Firewall at the application level.It is achieved by creating a security zone between the Internet and the intranet. This zone consists of an isolating mechanism separated from the Internet by means of a router. It consists of several devices, which include a host of external services, which performs specific filtering for each application, using a specific code for each application, which must be updated each time an application is added, deleted or modified.remove or modify any application.remove or modify any application.

Firewalls do not solve everything, as they are just one component in any comprehensive security scheme. Other systems and instruments must complement them, if a protective mesh without holes is sought.

Glossary

EXTRANET: Computer network of a company that relates it to its environment (suppliers, partners, allies, clients) without giving up a certain degree of privacy. Network of an organization projected outwards, but generally protected against intruders. It is a form of intranet. It is a network that uses Internet technology to connect companies with their suppliers, customers and other companies that have common goals. It is also possible to define it as part of a company's intranet that is open to other companies. The information that is shared can be made available only to the parties in collaboration or to the public FIREWALL: A security instrument that interposes between a private intra / extranet and the Internet. It is applied to a server to encrypt confidential data and block unauthorized access. Literally,firewall is a line of fire that is lit around a forest fire to stop it. "Fire wall or wall". Generally, it blocks or filters Internet connections. HACKER: An individual who is dedicated to penetrating foreign systems and networks to steal, modify or delete information that does not belong to him. Intruder, hacker; by extension, creator or spread of virus.HTTP: Hypertext Transport Protocol (HyperText Transport Protocol). It is written in lowercase and is followed by a colon (:) and two diagonals (//).INTERNET: It was conceived in 1969 by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), an agency of the United States government, which at that time he called it ARPAnet (net in English means "network").The original intention was to build a network that would continue to function even if a large part of it was destroyed (by nuclear war for example). The Internet is now a public, cooperative message transmission system that links millions of computers around the world and forms an immense network that enables the transfer of data and files and the sending of e-mail among millions of users around the world. INTRANET: Internal network of an organization, usually separated from the extranet and the Internet by security devices. Private network that uses the infrastructure and Internet standards but whose entry is forbidden to the public by a program called a firewall (anti-flame wall). LINK: Nexus, connection between websites.It consists of referring data to another point in the network and allows the user to jump quickly between sites using the mouse. BASE PAGE (HOME PAGE): First page of a Web site. From this page you can reach the other pages of the site. WEB PAGE: Hypermedia file stored on a Web site, which is identified with a unique address. PROTOCOL: Set of standards that govern data communication. PROXY, PROXY-SERVER: Server that accumulates the most visited Web sites and located near the users / clients. Their applications save time and costs for transmitting data to the most distant providers.PUBLIC KEY INFRASTRUCTURE (PKI): Public key infrastructure. Regime controlled by some authority - public,private or mixed - that assigns each user a public and a private key to shield the digital signature SAFE ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION (SET): Secure electronic transaction. In certain cases, shielded by complex encryption methods SECURE SOCKETS LAYER (SSL): Secure socket layer. A protocol invented by Netscape to encrypt communications between a web browser and an external server. Improves privacy, authentication, and integrity. Protocol that guarantees confidentiality in electronic commerce. WEB SITE (WEB SITE): It refers to a computer connected to the Internet, which contains hypermedia accessible from any other computer on the network through hypertext links. LINK): Pointer consisting of text or graphic,which is used to access hypertext stored on any website. It is underlined and shown in blue. When the cursor is positioned over it, the shape of the cursor changes to a hand pointing with a finger.

ANNEXED

INDICATORS

ALTOCITY ANALYZES AMBA USER BEHAVIORS

Altocity.com, through its Marketing division Altocity.com conducted a survey among 300 consumers and users of the network in the Federal Capital and Greater Buenos Aires.

Results of the investigation:

The quantitative survey yielded the following results:

* E-commerce is a way to buy that came to stay (92%).

* It is "shopping from home" (70%).

* It allows to buy more calm (61%).

Asked about the shopping experience, they said:

* Buyers who "jumped the barrier of insecurity" are satisfied and will buy again online.

* Music, videos, books, computer articles and household appliances are the most purchased products.

* Women buy more impulsively and more items than men.

The main consumer doubts and barriers in relation to online shopping are:

* Not being able to see and touch (80%).

* Not knowing who the products are bought from (66%).